I just got done doing the dishes, and I realized that I have a very specific way of doing them, right down to the utensils. Plates, bowls, cups/mugs, pots and pans, large utensils, knives, spoons, forks. Read More Lunchtime Poll: Perfect Order

Contrary to Time‘s recent “Chore Wars” article, which claimed that these days, men do an equal share of the household labor, I suspect that men may do plenty of chores, but that we ladies still do the true majority. Do I have dozens of studies to back up this blog here? No. What I do have are all the gaps “Chore Wars” fails to address, and everyday experience with other women. Get ready for my rant.

I’ve made a huge mistake. Two years ago, I was a college student living in an off-campus house with a bunch of other students. I paid bills and split chores and did my own cooking. I was independent and looking forward to moving out of my parents’ house forever. I had the skills needed to be on my own; all I needed was a job. Read More Living With Your Parents as an Adult: How to Make it Suck Less

I mentioned in a prior post about my disdain for cooking and, subsequently, domestic household duties. I have tried to instill some basic household organization by trying to maintain basic cleanliness and order, but when you have a kid, that’s pretty much impossible. Between the toys, the papers, and the stuff they collect, it’s a never-ending battle you probably can’t win and shouldn’t fight anyway. Read More Get A Job!

Yesterday while I was high on endorphins during an especially awesome workout I was getting really pumped up and was like “This is the first day of February! I should work out every day in February! It’s totally manageable because it’s the shortest month! I will call it Fitness February! Endorphins! Weeeeee!!!” Then I jumped around a little because I was hopped up on dopamine and was having difficulty containing my energy. You know how I’m going to track my goal? A star chart! Yes, the chart you have on the fridge for your kids to do their chores. I love star charts for making and keeping track of goals. It doesn’t have to be fitness either, it can be any goal your little heart desires. And it doesn’t have to be an every day thing, it could be that you want to work out 3 days a week. That’s a great star chart goal too. Here’s how I like to do it.

1.Get a specific goal. Similar to New Year’s Resolutions, all goals are easier to maintain and track if they are specific. My goal of Fitness February isn’t enough, I needed to define Fitness so I don’t cheat myself out of accomplishing as much as I could. I decided that exercise must be at least 30 continuous minutes in the form of either a visit to the gym or a work out video.

2. Write It Down. Self-explanatory. Put it somewhere visible. Mine is on the fridge.

3. Make your chart! For my goal all I needed to do was go to Word and make a February calendar. I put “Fitness February at the top” and then every calendar spot gets a sticker. Sometimes I have more than one related goal going at the same time. In that case I just make a table in Word and every square gets divided into two or three smaller squares, like so:

4. Come up with a reward. Honestly, for me, just getting the stickers is pretty satisfying, but I like to come up with a reward for myself once I’ve met my goal. Anything you want. I usually like to make it something a little self-indulgent because you want to feel motivated and you deserve it!

I am an unapologetic fan of cats. I’m a fan of most domesticated critters no matter if they’re dogs, rabbits, turtles, birds or some sort of elongated rodents. At present, I share my house with three cats. Three cats that create what I think might be an unusually large amount of waste product by converting the money I spend on cat food into poop. Read More We Try It: The LitterMaid